‘Done’ vs. ‘Excellent’

“If you want to achieve excellence, you can get there today. As of this second, quit doing less-than-excellent work.”

Thomas J. Watson

This is convicting when you take the time to step back and really think about it. When you finish a project or a task what matters to you more; is it the fact that you ‘finished it’ or the fact that it was done with excellence? Sometimes I’ll admit that simply being able to check something off my list and say “done” is more important to me than taking the time to think about how well it was done.

If it is worth checking off your list, it is worth doing well. Ask yourself these questions the next time you complete a project or task. Was this my best work? If I could have spent more time or energy on this would it have been better? Should it have been better? Was this unambiguously excellent?